UDRP Awards Octopus.com to Online Travel Firm

Travel firm gets a nice domain name upgrade through UDRP in a strange case.

A World Intellectual Property Organization panel has determined that the domain name Octopus.com ought to be transferred to Octopustravel Group Limited. The firm’s current web site is OctopusTravel.com.

Ahead of you scream regarding this injustice you ought to read the facts. In fact, back in March I wrote regarding this case with the headline “1986 Domain Name Octopus.com Could Be Lost in UDRP“.

All of the content on Octopus.com has to do with the sea creature. But all of the ads are for travel.

Yes, some of them are Adsense and it may not have been the domain owner’s intention for them to be related to travel. But the AdBrite ad is questionable.

And it turns out the owner of the domain has a connection to Octopus Travel. She used to work there.

She also used a fake name as the owner of the domain name. She explains that she just didn’t want her friends to know she was regarding to get rich by selling a great domain name, so she used a fake name.

Hmm.

I find it hard to believe it was only her love of octopi that led her to register this domain name.